


More Sketches

by kate_the_reader



Category: Inception (2010), RocknRolla (2008), Taboo (TV 2017)
Genre: 100-word, Drabble, Fictober, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-23 05:47:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16152854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate_the_reader/pseuds/kate_the_reader
Summary: Little things.





	1. Poisonous

It’s not only arsenic that can kill you by degrees. It’s suspicion and rumour, whispers in quiet rooms, knowing looks on the street.

James knows all about suspicion and rumour, the truth half-understood. The things people say about a mother, a sister, the way they regard you when your back is turned.

But unlike arsenic, suspicion and rumour can only poison you if you care. He doesn’t care what they say about him. He’s almost died times without number.

Does he care about another? Will he try to save him from rumour and suspicion? Take him to safety and freedom?


	2. Tranquil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave thinks about Bob.

Bob doesn’t like early mornings, so when he can, Dave lets him sleep in. He slips out of bed quietly, out from under the hand that Bob often rests on his shoulder, and goes to shower. But before he leaves the room, he lets himself just look at Bob’s sleeping face -- soft and still. 

When Bob’s awake, he’s rarely still. He smiles, laughs, frowns, bites his lip. And his hands are in constant motion. 

In bed in the dim light, he looks tranquil. And when Dave comes back into the room, he opens his eyes and smiles, calm and happy.


	3. Roasted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey and James

It’s when they are served a roasted fowl that James does something he should have expected, but which shocks him nonetheless.

He carves the breast meat and serves it to William, handing him the plate with a faint smile.

Then he tears off a leg and bites into it, ripping the flesh with his teeth, never letting William’s eyes go. Hot grease runs down his hand. When the bone is bare, he licks that grease.

A delicious shock trembles through William, his own meal disregarded. James sees that tremor and licks his lips. Now William is impatient to go upstairs. 


	4. Spell

This has never happened to him before.

He’s met plenty of people who have intrigued him, delighted him, tempted him. Some have surprised him, even shocked him. Some just turned him on.

He acts on his interest, or doesn’t, depending. Usually, he can tell if it’s reciprocated. Often, it is. He’s charming, he knows this. He uses it.

Now he’s met someone who confounds him, bewitches him, draws him relentlessly in -- and yet, coolly keeps him at a distance.

He wants to approach. He knows he must wait.

It is agonising.

Until Arthur breaks the spell.

“Eames,” he says. “Yes.”


	5. Chicken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bob and Dave

Ever since that first time, it is more than a memory of childhood. It’s a memory of starting to understand he could have a home, with someone who takes the trouble to look after him, to give him what he needs, what he didn’t even know he could ask for.

Today, he’s home early. He turns the oven on as he unpacks the shopping. He rubs butter into the skin and puts it in a roasting tin.

The aroma fills the house as he waits.

Dave smiles as he steps through the door. “Roast chicken!” he says. “Thank you, love.”


	6. Drooling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

It’s a risk, being unconscious around colleagues for a living. Eames doesn’t care that his body might betray him, but he knows Arthur does. That his professional reputation is, in his mind at least, bound up with his unruffled appearance. So he keeps a particular eye on Arthur when he’s left topside, watching over the dreamers.

Arthur needn’t worry, he’s a neat sleeper. But once, his head tipped sideways, and Eames caught the sheen of moisture at the corner of his mouth. Arthur opened his eyes just as Eames thumbed it off, and held his gaze for a long moment.


	7. Exhausted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bob and Dave

The house is quiet when he gets home. No dog claws clicking on the floor as he opens the door. No Bob standing in the hall. He takes off his dirty work boots and walks quietly through. They’re both fast asleep on the sofa, Bob sitting with his head tipped back, Butch lying across his lap. The dog wakes and looks up, his tail thumping. Bob opens his eyes.

“We went for a run. He was exhausted after.” He’s still half asleep.

“So I see.”

Dave sits down and Bob leans against him. Butch sighs and closes his eyes again.


	8. Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey and James

It is dark and still when he comes on deck. The breeze has dropped to a whisper, the watch are gathered near the helm where one lantern burns. He turns towards the bow, where the dark bulk of James looms, walks forward.

“Good evening.”

“Godders,” James says, not turning to him. “Look at it.” He points at a star hanging huge in the sky. “Venus.”

He steps closer, close enough to feel James’ heat.

“One cannot see the stars through the filth in London. But here, and in Africa …” He trails off.

“Things are clearer?”

James grunts. His agreement?


	9. Precious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set after my story [And So It Begins](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13754250/chapters/31607829)

It was Mal who had the idea — a token to help you remember what was real and what only a dream. Hers was something from her childhood, but he doesn’t go back that far into his past. The feel of it in his pocket, the corners digging into his thigh, is an uncomfortable reminder. He doesn’t even need to touch it to know it’s there.

The first time Eames sees it, he winces. He knows why it has to be this thing. He takes something from his own pocket. They make a pair.

Red totems, painful memories. But precious.


	10. Flowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Delaney

Every vision, every nightmare is water — cold, cruel, enfolding.

The river of Salish’s longing, of her rebellion, of her refusal.

Horace on the filthy foreshore, calling across the water, his fires dancing on the waves.

A human cargo, imprisoned as the sea overwhelms them all, their mouths silently screaming.

Oars creaking, taking him to a duel, to a ship, to blood and murder.

The river taking his crimes, but never washing him clean.

The river taking Zilpha, unmoored from herself, from her past, from life. 

Taking him away at last, as the tide flows to the sea and freedom.


	11. Cruel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

They’ve been dying for this holiday -- palm trees and umbrella cocktails, a big bed and a ceiling fan. Swimsuits, linen shirts, sand between the toes.

The first day is perfect. They swim in the crystal sea, lie on the sand, fuck under the lazily-turning fan. 

The second day is windy, the palms whipped sideways, the waves too high. On the third day, the airport is closed, the rain almost horizontal.

“I should have checked the long-range forecast,” says Arthur, scowling. “I’m sorry. Guess we’re stuck inside.”

“Cruel fate,” says Eames, biting his way across Arthur’s collarbone.

“Mmm,” says Arthur. “Cruel.”


	12. Whale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey and James, at sea

A pounding of feet above his head brings William up on deck. The crew are gathered in an excited knot at the rail. “A whale!” shouts Robert. “A whale!” The crowd parts to let him through.

“Would you like to look down upon it?” James is at his shoulder, speaking privately. “Come.” He climbs the ratlines quickly, William more slowly. 

At the top, he turns to see. The immensity of the creature is breathtaking. Alongside it, their wooden home seems puny, fragile. 

“The Leviathan of the sea,” James murmurs.

William remembers the first time he heard him utter those words.


	13. Guarded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey

He has always known how to hide -- off to the side, unremarked, half seen.

Sometimes, as he sat at his desk in the committee room, Sir Stuart’s eyes had rested on him, narrowing with speculation, and he had stared blandly back, hiding by not hiding. Guarding his true self, refusing to reveal it to the undeserving.

But when James had sought him out at the house, once his shock had passed, it had been a relief to be seen by him, by someone of the outside world. To be seen by someone with whom he had not always been guarded.


	14. Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

Eames didn’t have to tell Arthur how he feared losing track of time, letting it slip through their hands until they were trapped too deep. He didn’t have to say: I don’t want what happened to Mal and Dom to happen to us. I want to grow old with you _here_ , not in some dream where nothing really changes.

After the Fischer job, when the two of them started to work again, Arthur was careful to include one in every room and space, so Eames always knew. In any Arthur dreamspace, it was the first thing he saw. A clock.


	15. Weak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey

He appears weak, weeping in anguish at what he is asked to do, at what he is asked to give up. But his anguish is not just for himself, it is for them both.

James doesn’t care for himself, or for others, cares only for their use to his scheme. 

But he cares, for James, for them both. And, he admits, for truth. At last.

He can do this thing, this right thing, can reveal all he has heard under the raised hands of evil men. He can help to bring down Sir Stuart. And who will be weak then?


	16. Angular

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

The creased and faded picture shows a boy with hair falling in his eyes as he looks over his shoulder at the camera. Over his bony shoulder, unmarked by ink.

It’s Eames, before.

Before he was Eames, before he made the body he’s comfortable in now. Before he made himself.

He props it on his desk, where Eames sees it the next day. He picks it up. Arthur watches his expression shift from a frown to a sort of fondness.

“I was 14, I think. God, I was skinny!” 

“You should have seen me at that age. I was _angular_.”


	17. Swollen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bob and Dave

Dave’s van is parked outside when he gets home. He wasn’t expecting him so early. “Hello?” he calls as he unlocks the door.

“Through here, love.”

Dave’s on the sofa, his leg propped up on the coffee table. There’s a bag of frozen peas over his knee.

“What happened? Why didn’t you ring?”

“Twisted my knee getting off a ladder.” Dave huffs a laugh, wincing.

“How did you get home? You should have called me.” Bob sits down next to him.

“Gavin drove me. It’s just a bit swollen, love.”

“But I wish you'd called _me."_

“I know. I’m sorry.” 


	18. Bottle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Delaney

There was a long time, in Africa, when all he ever drank was water. Water slakes your thirst, but it does nothing for your other needs. Doesn’t sharpen your wits, or dull them. Doesn’t take you out of your head, when it’s so crowded and noisy that you have to scream to be heard over it all. Sometimes all you want is to get away from them, the voices. And water doesn’t help.

A bottle of brandy is a promise of freedom from them.

A lying promise. It doesn’t quiet the clamour. But maybe it can make you stop listening.


	19. Scorched

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey and James

One edge is a little scorched and the paper has been folded and unfolded many times.

The small ink drawing is of a dark-haired woman. She is not looking at the artist, but off to one side. There’s a firm set to her full mouth and a slight frown creases her brow, as if she is merely tolerating being captured. 

It is a private, treasured thing. He knows he should not be looking at it. But it is a hint of a past he would like to know more of. Would like to understand. Perhaps James will tell him. Someday.


	20. Breakable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey. And James.

He is not naive enough to imagine that James will always want him. He can hope for that, but he cannot, must not, expect it.

This is just an interlude, an adagio between crescendos, a lull between storms. James is waiting here, for a time, but soon the swirl of the world will catch him up again.

What he has been given is fragile, breakable. He holds it lightly, like a bird’s egg in his hand. He will not be the one to break it. And if it is broken, he hopes for the fortitude not to be broken himself.


	21. Drain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

Arthur has a puzzled frown. Eames glances over from the other sink where he’s combing his hair.

“What’s up?”

“Don’t know. It reminds me of something.”

“What does?”

“The water. The drain.”

“The vortex?”

Arthur huffs a half-laugh. “Vortex?” But his expression clears. “Actually, that’s it. I was once in a dream with a mark who was fixated on a particular idea. There was a stone basin with a neverending vortex.”

“Unsettling,” says Eames. “Funny how memories return like that.”

“Yes. But okay if you can place them, I guess.” Arthur steps behind Eames, slips his arms around him. “Thanks.”


	22. Expesnsive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

Not every payout is on the Saito we have to stop world domination scale. Most are more modest, but even so, they make good money. Very good money. They can afford nice things without really counting the cost. Each of them has a different idea of nice.

Arthur has stopped thinking of well-cut designer suits as expensive. Bespoke tailoring can be expensive, but worth every penny when he puts a new suit on at home for the first time and sees the ways Eames’ eyes widen and then narrow with promise in a way that makes Arthur’s stomach flip over.


	23. Muddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James

He wakes with his face in the mud and is surprised to be alive still. And then finds her there, in the mud herself, like something thrown away, disregarded. He told her he was not fit to be near. He was right. He has no recollection of it, his mind clouded by drink and grief.

The one person Helga tried to keep pure, undefiled, though the child made a life in the mud, picking over what the river threw up, finding treasures amid the rot and stench.

His face muddy, like his soul, like this dirty old river of death.


	24. Chop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bob and Dave

In the kitchen while making dinner is the place they talk about the day, just small things, things they noticed, things that made them laugh.

“I saw a woman today who looked just like my Mum,” Bob says one evening, chopping a carrot.

“Oh yes?”

“Standing on a corner smoking a fag waiting for the light to change. Just like her, her hair and everything.”

He sniffs and swipes awkwardly at his eyes with the back of his hand. Dave puts down his knife and pulls Bob into his arms. Bob leans against him. 

Carrots don’t make a person cry. 


	25. Prickly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave

The hair at the back of Bob’s head is short and prickly. He loves the feel of it, smooth and soft when he strokes down, bristling when he runs his hand back up. He loves the feel of Bob’s skull as he cradles it, as Bob pushes back into his palm. A little higher up, Bob’s hair is just long enough to tug between his closed fingers. They both love that, when he pulls gently and Bob tips his face up for a kiss. Or when he cups the back of Bob’s neck and rubs gentle circles with his thumb.


	26. Stretch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

Sitting at a laptop -- ferreting out secrets, following money trails, making sure any team has all the information they need to do a perfect job -- is bad for the posture. And a poor posture is not the frame to hang gorgeous clothes from.

When Arthur stands up, he stretches like a cat, back bowed in an elegant curve, head thrown back, lovely throat bared, arms as high as he can reach, fingers interlaced.

He positively revels in a stretch.

If he’s alone with Eames, he doesn’t mind that stretching so extravagantly makes his shirt ride up. Or perhaps it’s deliberate.


	27. Thunder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bob. And Butch

Butch is a calm dog, used to loud noises. He doesn’t mind crowds or busy traffic. It’s a holdover from his racing life. The people at Battersea said ex-racers were couch dogs, who just want to lounge around and go for walks, not specially high-strung. Bob hopes they haven’t made the dog go completely soft.

Noise doesn’t scare him, usually. So it’s a surprise when during a rare summer thunderstorm Butch doesn’t just get on the sofa, but climbs into his lap, shivering.

He holds him and whispers: “It’s okay, we’re safe here,” and doesn’t feel even a bit silly.


	28. Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey and James

After James’ gift, the fine shirt that is more than just a shirt, he wishes he could give him something, some token, something to mark his regard. But he has no money.

One morning, as he dresses, James watches from the bed as he runs his fingers down the delicate white embroidery. 

“I wish I could give you something,” William says, feeling his debt especially heavy, for some reason.

“But you have, Billy.” James holds out his hand; William steps forward. “You gave me peace. No one else could give me that. It is worth more than diamonds,” he whispers.


	29. Double

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

Arthur will never be able to forge. And he wouldn’t want to. He admires the skill, knows it’s useful, but he has spent a long time on presenting himself in the world as the person he has always been, inside. He wants to be seen as who he is: competent, serious, dependable. He knows he is difficult to get to know, he hopes he is worth the effort. Eames seems to think so — he spent long enough trying to get under Arthur’s skin, to the heart of him.

There is only one Arthur, if you know how to look.


	30. Jolt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godfrey

When that lawyer had announced in the committee room that James -- long assumed to have died -- had returned, was here in London, the shock had almost jolted him out of his seat. No one ever looked at him, quiet at his desk, so they did not see how his hand shook as he recorded the bewildering news: James, risen from the watery tomb in which he had been imprisoned. He recalled the shock of hearing the news all those years ago, of a ship lost with all hands and on its company list one name leaping out: James Keziah Delaney.


	31. Slice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Eames

“I saved you a slice.”

“What’s that?” Eames is taking off his jacket in the hall. “It’s pissing down out there.” He becomes aware of an aroma of sugar and spices drifting from the kitchen and follows his nose. Arthur is sitting at the counter, a plate in front of him, crumbs and a smear of filling the only evidence of the pie he’s been eating.

“Just one slice?”

“You know how much I like pumpkin pie.”

“Indeed I do, darling.”

But Arthur is laughing as he brings over the pie, just one slice cut from it. “There’s plenty, really.”


End file.
